I Hart Space! - Chapter 4: Rising Star, Part II

Welcome yet again to I Hart Space!, a space-themed joint matriarchal legacy shared between Kristina and me.  Let's jump right in . . .

In Part I of this chapter, we saw a little taste of life at Hart Observatory for our current teen heiress, Mira the aspiring Renaissance Sim, before taking a little diversion in the Spares Interlude, where the boys found their forever home. If you're behind on any of that or previous chapters, hit the index!

Sirius: "And then, after you guys left, I watched a comedy on TV and laughed myself to death, but Lexi was able to plead with the Grim Reaper and then I came back to life."
Mira: "Sounds like a really crazy dream!"
Sirius: "It was real, I'm telling you!"
Mira: "Yeah, ok."

Oh yeah, that happened in the Spares Interlude too. No more deaths for a while, and certainly not any unexpected ones, please.

We get a lot of visitors, again mainly because Mira is popular in town. Sirius and Rigel text to come over all the time too, and I always say yes because it's nice to see them. Well, usually nice. It can sometimes be not-so-nice with Rigel. Anyway, Brandy stops by a lot too. She and Mira have a higher friendship bar than Eris and Mira currently have, partially because Brandy keeps calling Mira up to go party. When she stopped by this time, Eris caught her at the door, but instead of pulling her usual shenanigans, Eris just shows Brandy embarrassing baby pictures of Mira. As you can see, members of the Spencer-Kim-Lewis household are still trying to gain entrance, but we just ignore 'em.

Another invite from Brandy, and these two are again failing to "dance together." They just don't really get it, but they do seem to enjoy themselves.

Mira needs six skills at level 8 eventually for her aspiration, and she has six ancestors, so it works out well that she is doing one to honor each one of them. For her dad, who is an excellent cook and nearly a Master Chef, she is learning to cook. It doesn't always go well, though.

In fact, although no one was harmed and Mira put her fire out pretty quickly, it was so bad that it not only charred the stove and two counters, but also the mirror on the other side of the wall. Somehow the utensils escaped unscathed, though.

Once we got that sorted out, Mira successfully baked a cake for her mother, who is joining Denzel in elderhood today. With the boys moved out, it's just the three of them to celebrate, but that's ok. Alright, Eris, let's see the damage.

"I look old. I don't like it."

You are old. Get used to it. I tried to clean up Eris's look a little, but if you can still rock leather pants in your golden years, maybe you should. Also, this sweater comes in Eris's trademark yellow-y lime color, so it was a perfect 'upgrade' to her look.

Denzel seems to like the new look.

Eris: "Okay, maybe it's not so bad after all."

And, old or not, Eris is still the same sim we know and love. Nothing like cackling evilly over your Caprese salad to say, "I have a lot of maturity and life experience."

Speaking of elders, Denzel's bar was getting pretty full, and I know he'll be around forever thanks to that long-lived trait that Kristina helped him earn, but it'd be neat if he was around really long, so I let him have a youth potion.

Eris has been working on her rocket. Partially that's because she has to for Nerd Brain, but also it's because it's nice to have it just in case I feel like having someone jet off to Sixam. That hasn't happened yet, but I like having the option.

Mira takes an afternoon to go meet her nephew and nieces. Sirius is apparently on babysitting duty at the moment.

She also met Jade and befriended Lexi, with whom she was able to do the secret alien handshake.

Back home, Mira is working on fitness some more. She's bottomed out her body fat bar, and apparently she has a really tiny frame. It's a little weird seeing her like this, but she has to work out a lot to get to level 8 of fitness.

Party time! Mira is finally becoming a young adult! Her parents are of course pleased to be in attendance.

Mira also invited a ton of other friends and aquaintances, including her brothers and their families, Erika the bartender, and Brandy. Only a few of them made it to the cake, but a lot of sims showed up to the party. Like I said, Mira is well-liked! Happy birthday, Mira!

I didn't take a birthday shot of her because she looks exactly the same. For the "play a game with the birthday sim" requirement of the party, Mira and Brandy played some chess.

For his aspiration, Denzel needed to cook three meals at a single event. This seemed as good a time as any. He made the first one in the kitchen, as expected.

He then inexplicably took the second meal out to the counter at the bar (down in the lower right corner), despite there being plenty of open, clean counters in the actual kitchen. This picture is also showing what a fun party it was. We had people everywhere, actually interacting with each other like they're at the same party. It's so great when that happens.

Anyway, Denzel's third meal was prepared on the sink. Somehow. Not really sure how that board is staying up, but whatever, Denzel. He completed that requirement and is on the final tier of this aspiration.

The three kids played together on the monkey bars. It was pretty cute.

Mira and Brandy also became best friends, which I commemorated with this terrible picture. I was originally going to pair Mira up with Erika, but Brandy just keep doggedly inviting her out and they got to know each other so well that it seemed like fate.

As the partygoers disperse at the end of the party, Mira invites Brandy to move in.

Here's a better look at Brandy and her personality. Sigh. She's another Renaissance Sim. That means even more skilling and job switching, and she hasn't had the benefit of building up skills all through her teen years like Mira has. Brandy is starting fresh, but she does have a great personality. That should help.

Rigel: "I feel like this story is no longer about us."
Sirius: "I know. Weird, right?"

Ugh, it was never about you two. Don't let the one part of the chapter go to your heads. Are you two going home or not? They hung around forever in the hot tub after the party. It was actually pretty funny.

Inside, Mira can finally turn on the charm now that she and Brandy are the same age. A nicely-prepared dinner and some flirts are all it takes to get these two in the mood.

In fact, they're both almost instantly 'very flirty,' and sit there fanning themselves while I'm trying to get them to interact. Pull it together, girls.

All Hart courtships require hugs. It's, like, in a contract or something. Look it up.

After the sun sets, they have their first kiss in the glow of the growfruit trees.

Girlfriend and girlfriend selfie! Yay!

These two apparently liked the trajectory this was going on, because Mira immediately propositioned Brandy as soon as I stopped spamming romantic socials. Yup, I think these two might like each other.

Meanwhile, later that night, Eris and Denzel come home miserable and exhausted from working so late after a long day partying, but they did both get promotions. Eris is very close to the top of the Criminal career (boss branch) and Denzel is working to get to level 8 of culinary (he's in the mixology branch) for his aspiration. Both of these are night jobs at this point in their careers, and that's kind of rough on elders. No matter how late I let them sleep, they're always up too early and come home absolutely wiped out.

See? They're up and dressed for breakfast and a chat with Brandy, who is apparently quite excited about joining the family. That's not official yet, though, so let's see what we can do about that.

Mira and Brandy head out for a nice day together, hopping from one spot to another across town. They start at the park that came with Romantic Garden Stuff, the name of which is escaping me at the moment, with a little cuddling by the fountain.

"Brandy, I could hardly wait until I was old enough to ask you this. We're the best of friends, and I feel closer to you than any other person on earth. You've already made me so happy. Will you continue that and let me make you my wife?"

"Oh, how could I resist? Yes! And look at this ring! So sparkly! Almost as beautiful as the garden, but nowhere near as beautiful as you, Mira."

Aww. How sweet.

They then steamed things up at the spa, but not until after getting massages and hand treatments. Now that they're getting married soon, they want to look and feel their best.

They are still making out at their last stop for the evening, which is to drop off the 20 growfruits for Jasmine, who is approaching in the background there. Mira got the green pot, but it doesn't go with anything at the house, so I just put it in storage. I also just noticed when I took this picture that Mira and Brandy both have dark jeans and brown boots, albeit different ones. Cute!

Both couples at the Hart house are very much in love, so there's a lot of flirting and compliments flying around the table at breakfast the next morning.

Everyone then got dressed for the wedding. I think these two make beautiful brides.

As people started to arrive, they began their vows under a lovely little corner of the yard that I plant-spammed for the pictures. Amusingly, I then forgot to take any pictures besides this one that really show off the plants and especially the tree lanterns well. Oh well. Denzel and Eris had front-row . . . er, standing room . . . to watch their youngest child and only daughter get married.

Congratulations to Mira and Brandy Hart! <3

This picture is to show how very many people managed to make it for the vows by the end. It was a very well-attended ceremony.

Yay! Cake! That we can actually see! Amazing!

This party was a little bit weird, but very chill. People enjoyed themselves in various ways but mostly scattered. Jade is doing yoga in the background there, and Erika is making fun of Eris at the bar. Those two actually got into it quite a bit and built up a pretty good red bar before the party ended. I bet Eris enjoyed that.

Quite a few people enjoyed their cake at the pool. Meanwhile, Brandy got to know Lexi, who is now good friends with both Mira and Brandy. I love it when in-laws get along in the game!

Mira: "We're totally married now. How cool is that?"
Brandy: "I know! It's great! And if only Sirius would go home - hint, hint! - we could woohoo again too!"

"I guess now that I'm an adult and married and stuff, I should probably get a job."

Yeah, that and job-hopping is required for your aspiration. Sign yourself up for something good.

After another day partying and night working, Denzel was close to multiple need-failures when he came home from working. He needed to go to bed worst, but he didn't even make it to the stairs before passing out. I waited a bit, got him up, then got him down to his bed and saved and quit, as it was the end of my playing session for that night.

When I loaded up the game, I came back to this. An achievement! An achievement for a sim wetting himself! I wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed or mad, since he hadn't needed to go that badly when I saved, but I settled on amused and a little proud. I mean, it's an achievement. I got the little sparklies in the middle of the screen and everything. I laughed pretty hard at this. Sorry, Denzel.

True love is mopping your husband's pee puddle while he hides from everyone under the covers.

That morning, Mira starts her first day as an astronaut. Because she already has a lot of skills, she was hired at level 3, which is what is required for her aspiration. However, it didn't register until she got a promotion, which feels kind of unfair to me. So, at this time, she was just level 3 but ready to head off and do technician things!

Brandy isn't getting a job quite yet since she has no skills to speak of. Instead she works on Mira's garden since she loves being outdoors.

She also paints some beautiful stick figures since she's creative. Mira's skill choices are meaningful, but with Brandy, I went with ones that either aligned with her traits or that are easy to earn, like logic and video gaming, since they fill the fun need, or charisma, since you can earn it passively by socializing. Since I'm having to do so much skilling with these two, I figured I would at least make my life a little easier with Brandy.

Mira didn't get a promotion but did make good progress. When she came home, it was time to get a couple's portrait and a portrait of Brandy for our wall.

Eris: "Okay, girls. My back is killing me, so just . . . you know, pose or something."

"No! Not like that! That's a terrible picture."

Ah, glitches.

Here's the main portrait wall, with our newest couple up top and their couple's portrait nice and center. Portraits that get removed from the wall are stored in the storage basement, so don't worry about them. And, if you're wondering what happened to Galaxy and Jorge, well, there wasn't enough room on this patch of wall.

But don't feel bad for them. They just moved down the hall a bit.

I've mentioned five skills that Mira is learning so far, but what skill can she learn to honor her mother? Eris is really good at mischief, but that doesn't really seem like it would be Mira's thing, so she chooses handiness instead. Plus, that will be useful when Eris isn't around to repair and upgrade things.

Brandy, meanwhile, has picked up guitar. As a creative sim and a music lover, this skill should be a piece of cake.

Mira comes home tired but with a promotion, meaning she has completed the second tier of her aspiration, and now needs to skill even more and reach level 3 in a second job. It's time to apply for a different job, but first, she needs to take care of some needs.

However, before she can do much of anything, she heads back outside to investigate some lights. Looks like Mira's going to be visited by her father's people!

Awesome. This is my first successful abduction. They tried to abduct Laurel Gregory once but got tired waiting for her to get to the door of her massive house and gave up, lol. Anyway, I took a ton of pictures of Mira being abducted.

So, how was it?
"Awesome! I loved every minute of it!"

I thought she might have need problems or some weird moodlet but Mira seemed positively joyous after returning. Maybe they gave her the special half-alien treatment.

Eris is getting up there in age and I'd like her to meet her grandchildren, so I had her drink a youth potion. She, of course, chose to drink it on the toilet because this is Eris and this is just how she does things. Mira and Brandy are working on their skills and careers for a few more days before they start having children, so it's important for Eris to be around for a while.

Eris: "Are you really going to work like that, hon?"
Mira: "Yeah, Mom. All the hungry artists are wearing dresses that match their skin, baseball caps, glasses, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, leggings, socks, and high heels these days. It's an artist thing. Maybe you wouldn't understand."
Eris: "Yeah, I guess not."

And so Mira embarks on the first night of her second career. Again, she started at level 3, so she needs one promotion to make it register for her aspiration. This is where we'll wrap up for tonight, because I think this update is really quite long enough, but there's plenty more in store for Mira and the rest of the Harts. Most importantly, next time: babies! Thanks for reading and be sure to stop by SiMania to chat with Kristina, me, and other great writers. Bye!